


Shattered Subcon

by NoodlerHead



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Puppets, Slow To Update, look i have 2 other on going fics-, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-01-25 03:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21349519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoodlerHead/pseuds/NoodlerHead
Summary: Strings were everywhere. Bright crimson strings, painted with golden blood.-----------------------------or in other words pool noodle gets beaten up and bird puppets and child maybe murder so yeah that's fun
Relationships: Bow Kid & Hat Kid & Mustache Girl, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Snatcher & Snatcher's Minions, Snatcher & Subcon Dwellers, maybe dunno yet - Relationship
Comments: 19
Kudos: 93





	1. Defeated

Strings were everywhere. Bright crimson strings, painted with golden blood. The strings held onto the brittle branches of the lavender trees. Loose strands of string laid on the ground, twitching like a leg of a cockroach. There were also dismembered strands of the ruby-red in the swamp, floating above the surface of the water.

The dwellers floated around, desperate to find one of their former friends, or even the king of the forest. The fire spirits stopped chanting around their cult-like fire circle, and swung their heads around, now also looking for a soul in sight other than the dwellers. 

Subcon wasn’t ever this quiet or dead until today.

Roaring maniacal, glitchy laughter rang through the entire forest. Every inhabitant heard the laughter, and shivers ran down their ghostly backs.

The only one who was at least capable of meeting this monster was the ones who was not here. The was usually here, but curse the heavens that today was one of the only days she wasn’t here. Probably hanging out with her other friends. 

“Mine… mine… mine! All of this! Mine! The forest! Mine! The dwellers! Mine!” excited shouts echoed. “After all this time… it’s finally mine!”

The dwellers were scared, unable to do anything. They already didn’t want to submit into the former king’s rule, and they most certainly didn’t want to do whatever this bastard wants them to do. 

The dwellers squeaked and groaned and tweeted in protest, unable to make any legible sound. The new king ignored them and continued to gloat.

“This is all mine! Mine! And no one! No one! No one I say! Can stop me! Ahahaha!”

\-----------------------------

Hat Kid sneezed suddenly, jerking her eyes shut, and pushing away her juice box so it wouldn’t get snot over it. 

“What’s wrong?” Mu asked her, slurping the juice box that Hat had given her, while sitting on a stack of pillows.

The other child shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe someone in Subon’s talking about me.”

“That’s a stupid answer. Why would you sneeze when someone’s talking about you?”

“It’s just a myth, no need to get so worked up about it. ”

“Whatever.” Mustache Girl rolled her eyes. “Why do you guys hang out there so much anyways? It’s just a bunch of dead nerds and losers doing nothing but float and stuff.”

“Hey!” Bow pouted from the burger relic cushion, crossing her arms. “It’s not only ‘dead nerds’ or ‘losers’!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you say! Anyway, you got any more snacks?”

\---------------------------------

Snatcher dragged his now weak and injured shadowy form on the ground, trying to get away from that moon-faced brute and his damned strings. A small trail of glowing blood followed the Snatcher.

He never felt so weak or humiliated in his afterlife. How could HE, the KING of Subcon, be defeated by some mistake of a ghost? How? Well, it somehow happened, and he has to deal with it. But first… he needed a nap. A very, very, very long nap.


	2. Regrets

Not in a million years did Snatcher think of asking Vanessa for help. The ice bitch of all people. He was terrified of her. But there he was. Slowly dragging his body towards the manor, more blood dripping from his chest. 

The looming, creaking manor was covered in snow and silver icicles, the front garden’s plants long frozen to death. Any mortal or ghost would shiver, in both fear and the cold.

Usually an ice statue would’ve chased anyone who dared to approach the manor, but it didn’t stir when Snatcher floated to the door and “kicked” it open, shattering the splintering wood.

“HOW DARES ENTER MY HOME?!!” A shrill boom echoed throughout the manor. “AND HAD THE AUDACITY TO BREAK DOWN MY DOOR!”

Thundering stomps came running down. Red light surrounding the hideous monster that was once Princess Vanessa.

Her hair wisping around her like some black wasp swarm, her back hunched into a perfect U shape, Vanessa’s dress ripped to nearly rags.

“It’s me, you old hag,” Snatcher growled.

“Ohh… oh my~ Looks like you gotten in some trouble, idiot,” The witch cooed mockingly, noticing the injury on the other ghost. “Now who is it? The fire spirits, or perhaps one of the dwellers finally stood up to you?”

Snatcher rolled his eyes, he was scared yes, but it was better to be sassy than to submit so quickly. He didn’t need more shame. 

“Moonfreak got me.”

The queen didn’t look surprised. “It was bound to happen, him getting out of the Horizon. Well it was quite ‘lovely’ to catch up, I’m going to shower.”

Vanessa turned to march away, but Snatcher grabbed her arm.

“If you don’t want to get frozen dead-alive, then I suggest you LET GO,” Queen Vanessa bellowed.

Sharp ice was slowly crawling up the shadow’s arm.

“Look- I need you help,” Snatcher admitted. “To scare the dead daylights out of him.”

The witch smiled wickedly.

Snatcher was starting to regret his choice of asking for her help.


	3. Midnight Laughter and Imprisonment

The dwellers drifted around, twitching. Red strings holding their ghostly noodle bodies, keeping them near the village. 

The dwellers who managed to break free from the strings were stuffed all together into a cage, again, of red strings. 

The ringing sounds of their groans of hatred echoed throughout the village. 

They hated it. They hated the new “king”. They just wished to be free. Not controlled by any ghost, corpse, or any entity.

For the first time in a long time, they hoped that their prince was still alive, and would come and save them.

It’s been so long. Years…. Centuries even. They wanted to play again. They wanted to be happy again. They wanted to smile and laugh again. They wanted to be alive again.

They wanted Subcon back. 

Why did everything have to freeze and wither?  
\-------------------------------------------------------

The (King) Moonjumper was still laughing like a maniac. His red strings was what dominated the forest, not that pathetic-excuse of a king’s flames. 

His new subjects were also happy with the change! For they don’t have to bother with that mistake!

Though… they didn’t look happy. Oh well! They were happy on the inside! 

Now… as his first act as king, he was going to kill those little contractor girls. After all, he couldn’t have anyone else getting in the way of his rule. 

And no one was going to ever stop him. He was going to make sure of that.

\-----------------------------------------------------

Hat slumped even more in the desk chair in her bedroom.

Boy was today tiring! But it was really fun!! Well, she should probably go to sleep… after all, tomorrow she was going to visit Dead Bird Studio! 

She’s gotta save up energy to have fun with the directors!   
Hat Kid hopped off the chair, and started to make her way towards her bed that she shared with Bow. 

Bow was already in bed, snoring quietly. 

Hat slipped on her side of the bed and closed her eyes. Soon enough, the little girl was sleeping peacefully. 

Oblivious to what was going to happen to her and Bow.


	4. Sleepy Frozen Subcon

Snatcher was being dragged all over again. But this time, it was by one of his only fears. In the brisk snow.

God, why was he like this now... he was the KING of SUBCON! He was supposed to be strong and witty and rude to literally everyone just because! But there he was, getting taken away by the ice witch. 

He grunted as her iron grip tightened. Icicles were already spreading from his wrist. Damn it.

“Now… Mr. I’m-the-king-of-the-forest-because-I-said-so-”

“Don’t call me that.” Snatcher firmly snapped.

The former princess rolled her eyes, not that Snatcher could see it. 

“Snatchy, what do you even plan on ‘stopping’ this moon faced bastard? Just shove me in front of you and hope he piss his pants?”

Oh right. A plan. Why didn’t he think of this earlier? He was a lawyer for dwellers’ sake! Wasn’t he supposed to be smart by dictionary definition? Well he didn’t feel smart. At least not now. Maybe when Moonfreak attacked him, that idiot caused brain damage to him. Or maybe-

“Hello~? Subcon to Snatchy~ You still haven’t told me anything about a plan!” Vanessa interrupted his rapid thoughts. 

More frost formed as she strolled. And more verglas on him. 

“Calm down, calm down you Elsa-wannabe, I’ll tell you later,” Snatcher retorted, internally sweating bullets. 

“If we even have a later,” Vanessa grumbled under her cold breath. 

“If we do have a later,” Snatcher repeated to himself. “If we do have a later.”

\---------------------------------------------------------

“Wake.... up…! Wake...up!” A voice shook Hat Kid awake from her very lovely slumber. 

“Mm?” The girl rubbed her eyes, trying to clean out all the sleep dust that accumulated during her sleep.

When Hat’s vision finally cleared, she was met with a strange man floating above her, still shaking her.  
The man had a bluish greyish mask with red accents (kinda shaped like a lopsided moon), one of his eyes on the mask had shards of crimson glass while the other had blood red irises and a deep teal sclera. He was wearing a scarlet cloak, and he didn’t seem to have legs.

“Finally you’ve awoken! I was worried that you had died!” The man with the mask exclaimed, clearly elated that she had woken up. 

“Who… are you?” Even though she was awake, Hat was still hazy… what was even happening? Who was this guy? How did he get to her room…? 

“I’ll reveal soon enough Starlight, but I must leave now, I wouldn’t want to be the cause of your friend stirring up for the noise.”

Hat tilted her head in confusion. “Huh?”

“Meet me at your… BFF’s tree, as you call the wicked wretch, and then we’ll discuss matters further.” 

“Alright…” She mumbled, though confused of why this strange masked man didn’t want to wake Bow up, but woke her up. This whole ordeal was really weird… why was he using big kid words?

“Sleep tight Starlight, don’t let the one trapped in the horizon bite.” 

The hatless girl soon fell to sleep again, this time to the sound of silent giggles and ringing of bells.

\---------------------------------------------------------

“What a little fool,” Moonjumper tittered to the dwellers in the cage. “But at least it’ll be easier to lure her in!”

The dwellers shook the cage for what felt like the billionth time.

“Now now, no need to be so upset! You’ll thank me soon enough! Hehehe!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Smile~ It'll be your last~"


	5. Freed Souls and Betrayal

Ring ring ring ring ring! 

Ring ring ring ring ring. Ring ring ring ring!

Ring ring! Ring ring ring ring.

Ring!

We’ve got to do something!

Yes, we can’t be useless forever. We need to help them!

Come on! Let’s break this cage!

Yeah!

\-------------------------------------------

The strings containing the clump of Dwellers tore open as they all charged in different directions, pushing and pushing. 

The red split into mere threads. Cheerful ringing of bells echoed throughout the village. 

The masked ghosts quickly ran to their still trapped friends, and started swiping at the string binding them with their tails.

Stab, stab, stab, tear, tear. 

Once the stringed Dwellers were free, they all clasped together, into a tight embrace. 

\----------------------------------------

Hat beamed as she trotted through the dining hall and into the front of the train where the Conductor was swiveling on his chair.

She had almost completely forgotten her encounter with that weird guy, but who cares? She’s been planning this meet up for ages! Too bad Bow also planned to meet with some metro cats (for whatever reason. Hope that she doesn’t get caught by the Empress!) otherwise Hat would’ve also brought her to the Train(wreck)!

It took a couple of seconds before the Conductor had realized the hatted girl had entered through the sliding door.

“Oh heya lassie! Whit took ye sae long? Ah've been waitin’ fer hours! Ye know Ah wonae get any younger. But anyways, guid tae see ye!” The Conductor greeted. “It's been a long time, well syne the whole.... timepiece fiasco, but we're on guid terms richt lassie? Hope so!”

The kid nodded. “Mhm! Good to see you too Mr. Conductor!”

“No no no. Whit did Ah tell ye lassie? Na neid for thon peckin’ formality garbage, juist call me the Conductor, thon's fine.”

“Alrighty then Conductor!” Hat giggled. “What should we do first?”

\----------------------------------------

Strings decorated the tattered tree, with several leaves stuck to them. Slash marks. And inside of the mess of a “home” was an irate king.

“Come on… COME ON! WHERE IS THAT BRAT?! I TOLD HER TO MEET ME AT THIS PATHETIC GHOST’S TREE! Did she decide not to at the last second? Or did one of those BLASTED, USELESS Dwellers escape and tell her?!” The Moonjumper shrieked in outrage. “No… they can’t talk, only make those aggravating ringing noises that would get stuck in your head for centuries! WHERE IS SHE?!”

The King clawed the inside wood of the tree house(?), creating three long scratches right above the Snatcher’s chair.

“No no no no no! I CAN’T MURDER HER LIKE THIS! I need to lure her in- Better this time- Oh.. oh… how about I make a puppet of one her little… ‘friends’... Or maybe… two! Yes… that would be quite… delightful. I need someone who doesn’t care for their life… someone who lives for only another… or someone who drinks far too much… Hehe... I must look into the dreams and peer tonight… let’s make a living nightmare shall we?”

\----------------------------------------

“WHIT’S HE DOIN’ HERE?!!”

“DARLING??!!”

The two birds(?) stared at one another in disbelief and shock. 

“Whit’s HE doin’ here lassie!”

“What’s he doing here darling!”

The Conductor and Grooves both shrieked in unison, both saying it like a statement rather than a question. 

Hat Kid pouted, and cried, “Come onnn!! You both knew! We were planning on this for so long!!” 

Surprisingly, the Conductor quickly composed himself, even fixing his necktie and hat. 

“O-of course Ah knew! Just this peck neck, startled me a lil’! After all, it’s basically always Grooves’ fault!”

“That isn’t true at all and you know it, darling!” The moon penguin quickly defended himself.

“Shad dup for at least for a lil’ bit peck ne-”

“STOPPP!! I thought we already AGREED to NOT fight!! At least a small truce! For just today? Please?! For me?”

Both directors stopped screeching at each other, and cringed at her. The penguin of the two, sighed.

“Darling, I’m so incredibly sorry you had to see another one of our ‘debates’. Conductor darling, could we just continue this later? It is after all our day out with the little diva, we wouldn’t want to ruin our fun!”

“Fine… but ONLY because of the lil’ lass! Not because of you,” Conductor muttered.

DJ Grooves looked at the hatted child sympathetically, while the Conductor was still grumbling to himself.

However, Hat had already cheered up and was grinning. 

“Alrighty! We have the whole day together! You want to still want to film that movie? Or at least a little bit of it?” Hat Kid sniggered.

“Absolutely Darling! I’m sure we can finish by morning! After all, it’s another free for all, you can go wild! That’ll raise the ratings!” Grooves excitedly pronounced.

“We even built and set up the whole set already, we got all kinds of good-for-nothin’ owls and moon penguins as sides!”

Despite how strange it was for everything but her to be completely set up and ready to shoot,  
the kid was exuberant above belief. It really was a long time since she had fun with both of them! Nothing could go wrong now!

....

Could it?

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vanessa smiled dreamily, like she was living her dream life.

She wasn’t an idiot.

She just wasn’t going to help this purple mush of spaghetti just because. 

Because that would be idiotic. 

And she wasn’t idiotic. She was smart! She was pretty! She was just! She was fair! She was graceful! She was perfect! After all, she was her prince’s princess! Or queen now.

Damn that bitch of a mother… dying and making her queen! Now Princey couldn’t call her his princesssssss!

But she was getting off topic.

Vanessa was helping this purple mush of spaghetti because SHE was going to take the throne. 

It belonged to HER. And her prince, but he was in timeout for now~

Subcon didn’t belong to anyone else. Not Mooncow, not King Spaghetti, not those bratty dwellers and subconites, and it sure as hell doesn’t belong to those whippersnappers with the bow and hat!

It only belonged to HER, and HER ALONE. NOT SOME STUPID WANNABES. NOT SOME IGNORANT INTRUDERS.

Aww… What a lovely life she lived… It was just like a fairy tale! She just wished that Princey would just apologize already, so she could love him again! 

Oh well… guess he’ll just have to stay down there for another decade.

Now what did that pool noodle just say?

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Helloooo? Earth to the Ice Witchhh! Swinging me around! Just let me go already! I can walk by myself, I don’t NEED you to drag me all over the place! You’re just ruining my forest!” The Snatcher clutched his chest with his free hand (his left).

The queen seemed to snap out of her trance.

“Oh silly silly Pool Noodle~”

“STOP CALLING ME RANDOM NICKNAMES.”

“I can call you what I want. Anyways, silly silly Snatcher… you thought I was just going to help you? Could you really be that naive? And here you call everyone else a fool…” Vanessa giggled maniacally. “I’m not helping you or letting you go. I can’t have you running around creating more chaos and disorder in my kingdom than you already have!”

The Snatcher’s eyes seemed to grow wider than it already had. 

“What....”

“You thought I was HELPING you?! HA!! I’m simply just helping myself! YOU’RE NOTHING! I don’t care! Subcon is MINE! MINE I SAY!”

Snatcher dropped into the ground, turning into an actual shadow. However… because of the shards of ice still on his arm, he couldn’t turn fully into a shadow. But he somewhat get away from her as far as possible. 

He was stupid to think she could help.

He was stupid he could get his kingdom back.

He was so stupid.

He was so foolish.

He was a fool.

He was like how he was back then.

He was like the naive prince he was.

He wasn’t a king anymore.

Just another dead prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kind of ironic that they've been wanting to meet up for some time, yet didn't realize each other was going to go lmao
> 
> i also recently noticed i write way too much about subcon so we're going to add some birdo puppetos your welcoem
> 
> (mashed old chapter 6 with chapter 5, made a bit more sense that way)


	6. status update

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry its not an update, i might work on it later.

heyo, its me, mr. noodle man. aka void.

i haven't written or posted literally anything in the past few months, why have i started now?  
well, i finally decided to tell the peeps on ao3 what the hell has gone on with me. i haven't been on here or writing all the much because i had like zero motivation, so i just didn't do anything. 

why am i posting this on two of my more major fics  
here, i decided you all deserve the explanation of why shattered subcon has not been updating. on acit, because i was rewriting the entire thing.

oh yeah, i changed my tumblr url, its no longer @nodlehead, its @void-of-noodles now, so don't try using that.

anyways, i hope you've all been doing good so far, despite everything that's going on. 

time to disappear for another half a year.

-void (noodlerhead)


End file.
